An interview with Paul Miller

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   Paul Maxi Miller came through the ranks at Spurs and was a legend of the lane in his time there. He played in some of our biggest games and played in some our greatest teams. Paul was kind enough to respond to my random request for an interview and also gracious enough for some of you to ask him some of your questions as well. This is the first one I've done over the phone, all the others, apart from Ledley King which we filmed, have been by email. Paul was funny and brutally honest with his answers, it was a real pleasure to talk to him and it gave me a real insight into what it was like for him and the moments he treasures from his time with Spurs. I hope I've managed to convey his answers in a way that you realise how much playing for Spurs meant to him. Please read on and enjoy an interview with Paul Maxi Miller.
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3. AH: You signed schoolboy forms with Spurs, was there anyone else interested in you at the time?
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5. PM: Arsenal, West Ham, QPR, Ipswich, Man Utd, Coventry, Chelsea and Crystal Palace.
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7. AH: So with all those clubs interested why Spurs?
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9. PM: I liked Bill Nicholson but also because I met my school boy hero Bobby Moore and he told me to sign for Spurs as he thought that would be the best place for me and he was absolutely right. There was a good atmosphere there I and got on with the boys there. I trained at all the other clubs, spent a week at Old Trafford but they didn't suit me as well as Spurs did.
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11. AH: What do you remember about your debut, you came through the ranks at Spurs, what was it like getting that chance.
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13. PM: Id been knocking on Keith's door every Friday asking why I wasn't playing for about 6 months previously, the reserve team we had was very good back then. Two and half hours before we played Arsenal, Keith said "Im going to make a change from Saturday, Maxi keeps telling me how good he fucking is so now let him prove it" and that was it I was in the team and played from then on.
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15. AH: You played in the 1981 and 1982 Fa Cup Finals, which we won, which one do you think was the better game and why?
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17. PM: The first one is always the best one, getting your first medal and the way we won it with Rickys best ever goal was special nothing will beat that. The second season we were knackered we played 72 games and I had six injections through the season to get through it. Four other players had injections as well. We were playing on shit pitches, the ball was heavy and it took its toll over the season. The second final we got over the line, we could have done the treble that year, got beat by Liverpool in the Milk Cup Final in the last minute, Barcelona kicked us off the pitch in the Cup Winners Cup Semi Final. We were going well in the league as well but the games took its toll in the end. It was a great season but your first trophy is always the best one.
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19. AH: What memories do you have from before and after those games?
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21. PM: The build up to the games, when we beat Wolves at Highbury in the first one was probably the greatest atmosphere I've ever played in, in my life, the build up then to the final is great Top of the Pops, Blue Peter, signing the song and everything that goes with it. Meeting the Queen Mum at Wembley she was a lovely lady, and you know its what its all about isn't it. Why did we start playing football as a kid? Its because of the Cup Final, you go out with a ball and try and emulate what you saw the players do in the final. So to play in one was surreal, I was luck to play in 4, including the replays, so yeah it was very special.
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23. AH: You scored our opener against Anderlecht in the 1984 UEFA Cup Final First Leg, how confident were you going back to White Hart Lane after drawing 1-1?
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25. PM: We were gutted after the game, as they equalised in the last minute and we felt we should have won 4/5-1. Archie and Mark Falco missed some good chances. We pulverised them, absolutely pulverised them in that first game and we knew they would have to pick up in the second game which they did. We played quite well but they improved massively on the first leg, Saying all that though we were extremely confident we would beat them even though we had three of our world class players missing in Clemence, Hoddle and Ardiles we were never short of confidence in my time at Spurs.
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27. AH: That confidence comes from winning things though doesn't it?
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29. PM: Yes it does, we won 3 but we should have won 5 or 6, its never easy winning a trophy by the way but each one is special.
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31. AH: Apart from that goal what other goal was special to you?
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33. PM: The 25 yarder against Eintracht Frankfurt in the quarter-finals of the Cup winners Cup in 1982 was a good one, that one was special I was on top of my game then, I enjoyed that one.
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35. AH: How hard was it seeing Keith Burkinshaw leave after that Final, and how did it affect the players at the time?
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37. PM: Not bad to be honest we knew Keith was going and we accepted it. The problem was the Chairman (Irving Scholar) who wanted to run the show and he ruined it really. Saying that though the club carries on and the team carries on.
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39. AH: Who was the best player you saw play in a Spurs shirt during your time at the club?
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41. PM: Ossie without a doubt the best player I ever played with.
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43. AH: You played alongside Steve Perryman and Graham Roberts during your time at Spurs, what were they like to play alongside?
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45. PM: Steve was our leader, the baby faced assassin, he could make you feel two inches tall with his one liners. Graham a different personality but between he three of us we were winners and we could be quite nasty, which you had to be back then. We all got on though, we had a great camaraderie back then amongst us all. Chrissie Hughton was the Rolls Royce on the other side of us.
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47. Thanks for answering my questions Paul, the following questions are from some followers of the page.
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49. Rob Marlow: You were one of the toughest centre backs that has played for Spurs that I have watched, how many games do you think you would play in the current game in a season due to the current rules, and how many centre backs would last in your era?
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51. PM: You just adapt to the era your playing in, we had the back pass rule changed when we were playing. (Before this rule you could pass the ball back to the goalkeeper and he could pick it up, it was decided to make the game more attacking that you could still do it but the goalkeeper would no longer be allowed to pick the ball up. A major change for a number of teams that used this method to either alleviate a bit of pressure or to launch a quick counter attack by the goalkeeper kicking the ball down the field) If I was bought through the ranks today Id be like Jan and Toby, I wouldn't be as physical because the games changed and you change with it. We all joke about how we would of got sent off in the tunnel but you adapt. People say Bobby Moore wouldn't have been able to play today but half his game was in his head and the way he read the game. You adapt, you can only be great when you played, in the era that you were in, you cant be great in a different era if you didn't play in it.
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53. Julie Sujeewon: If there was one player who we could buy and money was no object from your era who would it be and why?
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55. PM: Kenny Dalglish, Kenny was top draw so if money was no object then him without a doubt.
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57. Ryan Lewis: If you could play with any player from a Spurs team not from your era who would it be and why?
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59. PM: Gareth, Gareth Bale, he was exciting. he has pace and scores great goals. I played with great players but off the top of my head I would say Gareth. Jurgen was another exciting player they would have been great additions to the team I played in.
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61. Stephen Owers: How does this team compare with the one you played in? I know we haven't won anything yet?
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63. PM: There's your answer, you cant compare teams that haven't won things. Saying that, the first on is the hardest one.
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65. Steve Shepherd: What was your favourite game for Spurs not including the Cup Finals?
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67. PM: Easy when we beat Arsenal 5-0 and should have been 8. The day Mark Falco got the wonderful volley, we had seven home grown players in the team that day so yeah that was special. Beating Liverpool 1-0 at Anfield for the first time in 70 odd years was special but also beating Arsenal 3-1 at Highbury on January 1st 1985 to go top of the league. That was a great day and a great evening we had a great dinner at the Ritz that night as well.
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69. Thanks again to Paul for taking time out of his day to do this for me. They are hard to get but hopefully will provoke some wonderful memories fro those reading it as it did for me asking those questions. I real honour and pleasure to do. Anthony
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An Unwanted Record

I am as guilty of a knee jerk reaction as most of you after the disappointing way we lost on Saturday. It hurt, it really hurt and it will take some time to pass. However after spending most of yesterday sitting in the sun surrounded by family and having a few drinks, I started to think about where we were and how far we have come. I started to think that the best way to describe it was as a re-birth. Let me explain.

When Poch was appointed we were dead, forget what Harry had done with one season in the Champions League we hadn't had a team of any sort of consistency since the 80's, not a team capable of competing in the league year in year out. Yes we had won the odd cup and flirted with the Champions League for a season but compared to the teams we aspired to be were a laughing stock. The little kid in the playground who tries so hard to be taken seriously who is made fun of and tolerated for a while then pushed to one side as an irrelevance.

We were a club rotting from top to bottom. Filled with overpaid players and an academy that wasn't producing any players at all (Yes I know Harry Kane broke through but he's the exception). We needed major surgery, we needed someone to take the club totally apart and rebuild it with no money, because we didn't have any. Then a little Argentinian turned up and started to re-build the club after years and years of neglect.

He started slowly at first but bit by bit we started to get excited by what he was doing. We could see players improving, Danny Rose and Kyle Walker turned from inconsistent players to England Internationals. He bought wisely and started to breath life into something that had been dead and buried. The club started to stir and started its new life as a baby.

Like all children at first it was inquisitive, it wanted to learn and improve and we clapped and egged it on, hoping that it would eventually take its first steps. Slowly but surely it started to stir and we started to hope. Those first steps were taken and the child wasn't a baby anymore it was an infant and was continuing to grow.

A new stadium was proposed and the child started to enter its late infancy, still growing, over achieving a little perhaps. Two title challenges before anyone expected, and suddenly we were willing the infant to be a man. We were wishing away its years of learning expecting it to take a leap it wasn't ready for, but like all parents we wanted what was best for our child and like some parents we heaped too much pressure on the child, became impatient at what we saw as a lack of progress and the child started to fight back.

Kyle Walkers head was turned by more money, Danny Rose did 'that' interview and now Toby as well. The child had become a teenager and was starting to question why things were being done a certain way, why it couldn't get its own way and yet we tried to reason with it but unfortunately without success, and unfortunately we lost a player to a rival.

Now we are at a crossroads and decisions have to be made. Do we allow the teenager to develop into an adult or do we wash our hands of it and say I'm sorry I tried and allow it to go completely wild. We were told the new stadium will allow us to compete with players wages. The players are paid well and have huge bonuses in their contracts but to most footballers a bonus isn't enough to sustain that ego.

They see weekly wages as a sign of respect. I don't agree with that but I get it. I'm not saying that the club should pay players whatever they want but we have to increase the wage bill if we are going to take that next step into adult hood and really compete at the top table of football. I saw Poch's comments after the game and I think hes frustrated at the way business has been done in the past. I'm not telling Daniel Levy what to do but he has asked us to trust him and we have, now's the time to repay that trust and not let this team break up because he wont pay the wages.

We, historically are not a big club, whether people like that are not its true. Look at where we sit on the following charts:

League Championship's:

Man Utd 20
Liverpool 18
Arsenal 13
Chelsea 6
Man City 5
Tottenham 2

That's what we are up against. Yes Chelsea and Man City have won theirs more recently but look at how many we have won, 2, that's it and the last one was 47 years ago. So we are not a big club. Its worth noting that before Fergie rebuilt Man Utd, they had only won 7. I'm not saying Poch is a Fergie but stating that with the right manager and the right backing as well as allowing him time look at what can be achieved. Why throw that away now?

European Cup:

Liverpool 5
Man Utd 3
Chelsea 1

Us? Never got past the quarter-finals in its current format. Yes we did reach the semi-finals in 1962 but there were 4 rounds that was it, so to me as good as that was it pales into insufficiency compared to the competition in the 70's and onwards.

FA Cups

Arsenal 13
Man Utd 12
Liverpool 7
Chelsea 7
Man City 5

Us? 8 and we've lost the last 8 semi finals. Now that's a handy stat to have thrown about these past few days so lets look at our opponents.

Arsenal twice who to be honest were streets ahead of us at the time we played them in those semi-finals in 1993 and 2001.
Chelsea twice again well beaten in both of them by far superior sides in 2012 and 2017.
Newcastle 1999 a team that had qualified for the Champions League a few years before and had challenged for a title against us who were still in our dark days of underachieving players and mangers.

So that leaves Portsmouth in 2010, Everton in 1995 and Man Utd yesterday. In my opinion we should have won those three. So when you look at that stat and do some research you see we were the underdogs and punching above our weight against far superior opposition on five of those occasions. Does it get mentioned nope because it doesn't suit an agenda.

So are we a big club? No we aren't. Hurts doesn't it? The truth normally does, but you have to accept it if you are ever going to move forward because its the only way to do so. The fans calling people like me clappers need to get off FIFA and Football Manager and read some of our history. Then they will understand what we are up against  The sheer scale of what a group of people who I believe have the best interests of this club of ours in their hands are trying to achieve and what they are up against.

However if we allow the teenager to develop into a man who knows where we can be taken. If Daniel Levy pays the wages that allows us to compete we could enter a period of sustained success. The father of all this, Poch would have achieved far more than any of us dreamed off. I'm tired of the media kicking us for doing it the right way, so I don't watch or read the news or papers anymore. I look with my own eyes and see what I see. A man who took over a corpse who breathed life into a club, trying to shepherd a baby from its early stages of life into a man. Someone we can be proud of. Someone we want to  be associated with. I'm willing to make a deal with the club as a whole.

I will not make knee jerk statements, I will not shout Poch out, Levy out or demand change for three seasons. Three whole years. What I want in return is continued progress. I want top 4 every year at a minimum. I want the players paid what is seen as competitive wages, not ridiculous money but something that will keep them here for the duration. I want signings to improve the team every year, not bargains but quality proven players who will add something to us, even if its only one of them, to make us challengers at the highest level and able to attract those players that will help us get there, and I want a trophy, I want to be able to celebrate us winning something. Because I believe that if we can develop like we have these past 4 years from a dead corpse, to a baby, to an infant, to a teenager, to potentially a man, then we will sit atop the summit of them all and stay there for years to come.

However if Daniel Levy allows this team to break up, he will have destroyed our best chance of sustained success in nearly 50 years and for me that would be unforgiveable. I don't want to go back to the 90's and 00's and become someone else's fodder. I want the boy to develop into a man. So three years it is, deal Mr Levy?

Fan Interview Friday 23rd March 2018 Mark Sherer.

This weeks fan interview is Mark Sherer, Mark over to you. He looks a lot older now though!

AH: Tell us a little about yourself? 

MS: I'm a 54 year old estate agent living in Ilford, I live with my partner and have two girls aged 27 and 21 and a lunatic Labradoodle called Bobby. I Enjoy playing military golf (left right left right) and arranging and hosting quiz nights. Due to work always worked Saturday's however for one year did get a season ticket, 94/95 the year Klinsman arrived, block 8 west stand, the year of the famous 5, there was never a dull moment.

AH: When did you start supporting Spurs? 

MS: Probably around the age of about four, my family all from the east end were either Spurs or Arsenal fans, fortunately for me I chose right. Earliest memory was of a Christmas when my mum bought me a white t shirt and ironed on the Spurs badge, at the time it was best ever present.

AH: Your favourite player from every decade you’ve supported Spurs?

MS: Sorry but in truth I can't give you a favourite from all decades as I feel I'd be disloyal to my ultimate hero Steve Perryman. Although he wasn't the most skilful, I have always said if we had 11 Stevie P's we would have won a lot more than we have.

AH: If you could ask one of those players a question what would it be and why?

MS: Stevie P: How much did he regret not playing in the UEFA cup final after being suspended, (personally I was gutted and had mixed feelings when Graham Roberts lifted the cup up)

AH: What is your favourite ever Spurs goal?

MS: Oh Anthony horrible question lol, so many to choose from, Gazza's rocket in the semi final is right up there, but for me it has to be Danny Rose's first goal against the scum, I could watch over and over ( in fact sometimes I do)

AH: Your most cherished piece of Spurs merchandise?

MS: It was for a number of years a piece of turf from the hallowed ground after we beat Hull 1-0 in our last home game whilst in the old 2nd division. We won with the only goal coming from Stevie P and subsequently at the final whistle there was a pitch invasion. I personally stood on the penalty spot at the Paxton road end and nicked some turf, sadly after a few years my mum threw it away!! On the Saturday we went on to draw with Southampton to reclaim our rightful place in the elite league. 

AH: Funniest memory from supporting Spurs?

MS: Going to a game at the Lane with friends I was probably around 11/12 horrible day weather wise my mum made me wear a blue coat that had a hood. We stood in the Paxton Road end and it was in the day's you could buy monkey nuts from the guy's in the white coates.

Couldn't understand why everyone behind me were continuously laughing, until the rain came down and I put my hood up and subsequently got covered in monkey nut shells!!!

AH: Your best moment supporting Spurs?

MS:Sadly over the years not as many as I'd have liked, have to say the 81 cup final replay and seeing that brilliant smile on Stevie P's face as he lifted the FA cup

AH: Your worst moment supporting Spurs?

MS: Truthfully to this day every single time we lose to Arsenal, Chelsea or West Ham. 

AH: If you could go back in time and change one result what would it be?

 

MS: Again horrible question Anthony as there's so many too choose from, including stopping the scum winning the league at the Lane, to all the games we lost in various cup finals, but for me personally it would be the game against Man Utd when we were 3'0 up at half time.

I was at that game with a well known snooker player who supports them and although I couldn't afford to, I'd bet him £100 we'd win, oh boy was I cockey at half time, not so cockey at the end, and believe me he didn't need the money

AH: Ever been involved in a Family feud regarding football?

MS: Was about 11 and went to Highbury with my brother who supported the scum, half time we were losing 1-0 and he did not stop winding me up. We won the game 2-1 and in the car on the way  home I was none stop winding him up.We got to Blackhorse Road station and he pulled tbe car over, he looked at me with daggers and said "get out" I saw his glare and despite pleading with him, I got out. I thought he'd come back but sadly he didn't so with no money on me for the only time in my life I had to beg for money, thankfully I managed to get home!....

Thanks to Mark for taking part. New one next week.

Opinion Piece: Our New Home

We are very nearly there, the stadium has grown in front of our eyes, perhaps more impressive than any of us thought it would look like. You see the artists impressions, they look amazing, but you never really know what to expect until its built. You think you do, you have a vision of it in your minds eye, but when it starts to be built it always changes from what you thought it was going to be. Until one day its finished and your walking through the doors and sampling the atmosphere for the very first time.

I remember my first ever visit to White Hart Lane. I was 10 years old and it was a 0-0 draw against Norwich City on the 26th Feb 1983. I remember walking up the stairs into the stadium in total awe of the sound, the smells, the bright sunshine that hit my eyes as I stepped out into the light after the cold concrete of the building around me. I've never forgot that feeling of belonging, of falling head over heels in love with something and not being able to describe why or how it happened.

Many of you reading this will have had similar experiences down the years. I've had some unbelievable times down the years in that stadium, I've also had some awful experiences as well. The laughter will stay with me forever, the bloke walking into the pub all proud of his new Purple Pony away shirt until we realised he had Dozzell on the back and got ripped a new one. Watching the scousers outside the ground being stuck as their coach had broken down and asking for change to ring home! These are just a few of my memories, but I worry there wont be anymore like these for me anymore.

The season ticket prices were released this week and there has been a lot of anger and disappointment at the increase in the prices. Personally I stopped buying a season ticket years ago due to cost and starting a family, it wasn't viable, I'm still a member and go as often as I can. I know some of you will buy it regardless but there are others that are now priced out of going, after many, many years of being season ticket holders they themselves can no longer go. This worries me.

Football used to be a working mans game, work hard all week, go and watch Spurs on a Saturday. With the ever increasing money flowing into the game this is no longer the case. Unless you are owned by someone that is going to write a blank cheque to fund your club the money has to come from elsewhere. Whether we like it or not that's corporate money. Without it the club cant compete.

I've seen lots of people saying pay Toby what he wants. Okay with what? Where does that money come from? Joe Lewis isn't going to write blank cheques for us and I don't want him to, because when he passes, a long time in the future I hope, I don't want us to end up like Blackburn Rovers. I don't want us to fail because the money run out. I like Daniel Levy, don't get me wrong Ill pull him up on here if he makes a mistake but he genuinely hasn't made many. He has shrewdly taken us from a mess to a club with real promise, a new stadium and a team to be proud off. Whilst also getting top dollar for any player that wants to leave us. What's not to like?

I get people are upset that they feel they are being priced out of doing something they feel so passionate about and that's my worry too. If the club isn't careful where does it customer base come from in years to come? Do we all stream games and pay for Tottenham TV because the ground is full of money men who wont sing and chant? Man Utd this week mentioned they were thinking of handing out song sheets? Really? What the hells all that about? Have they priced out true fans and this is their reward? We all laugh at the library and the crap atmosphere there as well.

The club has to make sure that they don't price the working man out of going to football. Personally I feel they've got the balance right and just about done that, many wont agree with me, that's fine I get it. Me not being able to afford a season ticket doesn't diminish my love for the club. After all I help with this page and that's a labour of love at times I can assure you!. Things move on, things change, we have to move with the times.

I used to like walking around the house with my pants on my head as kid, I don't know why but I did, I don't do it now though as I've changed. So has football. As much as we want things to stay the same we cant buy the players we all want, we cant pay the wages we all want without the cost of it going up. I love Spurs, always have and always will, but I got priced out of going a few years ago, it doesn't make me any less of a supporter it just means the way I do it changes. I want us to have the best players, the best team, the best chance of winning things, so I spend my money on merchandise, still supporting the club but perhaps not in a conventional way. That is the future. We need to be able to tap into that level of merchandise spend that other clubs do. We have to find ways of raising money, and that comes from the restaurant's and experience days that are way beyond the average fans ability to buy. To do that we needed a new stadium. It has to be paid for somehow.

We cant not change with the times if we want to compete at the highest level. We all may laugh at the cheese restaurant of whatever the hell it is, but that will generate income for the club that wasn't there before. It all adds up in the long run. There will always be something I want that I cant afford. That's life. It hurts of course it does, I want to spend every Saturday with my boys, supporting my team, but I cant so I compromise to a few games a season and we go and watch Dagenham and Redbridge. They get to experience live football and the atmosphere of a game, and we make life long memories whenever we go to see Spurs as its more special to us.

The club will never please everyone, it cant, I mean come on who gets Jason Dozzell on the back of their shirt!, but it must also make sure that it doesn't price out the younger generation of fans that will make up its future when the money bubble bursts. It will eventually end these things always do. A ground isn't supposed to be full of corporate guests getting handed song sheets to clap and sing along like they are at an Opera. A football ground is supposed to be about a tens of thousand of men, women, children forgetting about their troubles for 90 minutes and having hope in the fact that the 11 players out there care as much as they do about winning.

Its about that smell of the stadium, that noise that hits you like a hammer, that sense of belonging, that feeling of falling in love with something and not being able to do a thing about it. I hope the club are mindful of this as we progress through the coming years, that whatever it may be called to us it will always be White Hart Lane, it will always be where we make some of the best memories of our lives, that we share them with our friends and family. Where one day a young fan will take his or her first steps into the ground and be awe struck buy it. We owe it to them to make sure they aren't priced out of football like so many before them have been. Without that next generation there is no support. I hope the club don't forget that.